Meredith Abby on Coke in Colombia

from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base

[edit] Event Description

Meredith Abby, an organizer with the Anti-War Committee in Minnesota, will visit Macalester on May 3rd (Tuesday) from 7:00pm to 8:30pm at Carnegie 06 to speak about the atrocities that Coke has committed in Colombia.

Reservations have been made for the event and a publicity will be done through labor action groups listserves and the sandwich board. The event is sponsored by Adelante!

[edit] Speaker's Biography and Action Statement

I am Meredith Abby with the Anti War Committee. I will speak at Macalester College, on Tuesday May 3rd at 7:00pm in Carnegie 06 to a group of 30 students about my time in Colombia. I will hold an intensive group organizing training, teaching students about the abuses Coke and the Colombian workers struggle to organize. Specifically, I will outline points from my summer trip to Colombia where I witnessed Colombians struggle to unionize and work for social justice in their country.

While in Colombia, I will have the opportunity to meet with representatives from several very important groups working for peace and justice in the region. I will address these groups concerns as they relate to student activists here in the Twin Cities. They include:

• Members of the beverage workers union, SINALTRAINAL, who organize in the Coca-Cola bottling plant. The Anti War Committee has been a part of a boycott of Coca-Cola products in solidarity with SINALTRAINAL. 9 SINALTRAINAL activists have been murdered by death squads and Coca-Cola, like most multi-national corporations in Colombia, has used death squads violence and threats to try to intimidate workers from joining the union or taking part in demonstrations and other actions.

• The oil workers union, USO, which is one of the most powerful unions in Colombia. USO has been waging a historic and militant fight to keep Colombia’s nation oil company, ECOPETROL, in the hands of the Colombian people. The Colombian government has been working hard to give more oil profits to Occidental (Oxy) Oil and to BP Amoco. However, USO has been leading the fight for worker to organize and for the Colombian people to benefit from their country’s rich resources.

• My experiences traveling the Colombian countryside with the Cimitarra River Valley Peasant Association (CRVPA). The CRVPA organizes cooperatives, alternative agriculture projects, human rights documentation, and political organizing in the rural areas around Barrancabermeja. The CRVPA works with communities in para-military controlled areas and depends on visits from internationals so that their organizers can go to outlying areas and meet with campesinos (peasants). Their work documents and challenges the Colombian governments use of chemicals to fumigate crops and the para-military’s use of house burnings to intimidate progressive communities.

This information and educational session is crucial in a number of ways to the work of Adelante, SLAC, and MPJC. My first hand account and documentation of the conditions of Colombian union workers will enhance the ability for SLAC to progress with its campaign against Coke and to expose the conditions of working people struggling for justice in Colombia. Also, MPJC will benefit from learning the most important struggles to organize around as were relayed to me for by the campesinos and meetings with several social justice and peace advocates. These are the people who are mostly affected by Colombia’s current political tension, and understanding their work personally will allow MPJC to better organize for their most pressing issues. Moreover, Macalester’s larger student community will gain more exposure to those issues concerning Latin American countries like Colombia as these campaigns advance, as well as create community coalitions and ties with those activists and organizers from Macalester and the greater Twin Cities area.

Again, I will be speaking at Macalester College, on Tuesday May 3rd at 7:00pm in Carnegie Hall Room 6 to a group of 30 students about my time in Colombia. My honorarium is $400.

[edit] Reservations

From: reservations@macalester.edu <reservations@macalester.edu> To: ykim@macalester.edu Date: May 2, 2005 2:34 PM Subject: Reservation 15199 for Merideth Abby - Coke in Colombia beginning 5/3/2005 Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Add sender to Contacts list | Trash this message | Report phishing | Show original Please view your e-mail confirmation with the full screen option to see appropriate formatting.

Reservation No: 15199 Customer: ADELANTE

Bookings / Details Quantity

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Tuesday, May 03, 2005 8:00 AM - 12:00 AM Merideth Abby - Coke in Colombia (Confirmed) SB #3

   Standard

7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Merideth Abby - Coke in Colombia (Confirmed) C 06

   Reserved: 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
   Standard

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Thank you.

I have reviewed this reservation and have made appropriate changes.